Gender matters in elementary education: Research-based strategies to meet the distinctive learning needs of boys and girls

Research indicates that gender influences how children learn. Those findings do not necessarily mean that boys learn one way and girls another. Still, there are significant differences with respect to gender and how our brains develop. Researchers have found that no single area of development influences those gender dif-ferences: rather, a combination of developmental differences affects the brain, sensory motor, and physical development. In order to teach to gender differences, educators need to be aware of them and have knowledge of effective gender-based teaching strategies. Brain-based Gender Differences The research has established that the male brain is on average 10 to 15 percent larger and heavier than the female brain. However, in addition to size, differences in the autonomy of the brain are pres-ent across genders. Using brain mapping, research has established that men possess on average more than six times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence than women, while women have nearly ten times the amount of white matter related to intelligence than do men. One study also indicates that differences in the brain areas correlate with IQ between the sexes (Kaufmann and Elbel 2001). That study and an ongoing series of other studies make it evident that one part of males ’ brains, the inferior parietal lobe, is generally larger. That lobe is involved in spatial and mathematical reasoning, skills that boys tend to perform better than girls. The left side of the brain, which is responsible for the ability to use language and connected to verbal and written ability, develops sooner in girls, and girls therefore tend to perform better than boys in those areas (Gabriel and Schmitz 2007)